THE INDISPENSABLE CARY GRANT

According to Bill Libby's 1978-1979 poll, Cary Grant had more films cited as favorites by film fans than any other actor, yet critical acclaim has largely escaped Grant. He is one of the many acting greats who have failed to achieve that pinnacle of industry acclaim, the award of an Oscar. I wrote these opening lines in 1986 when I did a second evaluation of Grant's work. It seems appropriate to update once more the list of best films for one of America's most distinguished actors, the English born Archie Leach, Grant's real name.

Grant's failure to win an Oscar can probably be attributed to his particular skill at playing light sophisticated comedy. Because of this he was largely cast in such roles, which are much last likely to be attributed as best performances as compared to more serious roles. During his long career Grant received only two nominations. The first of these, was a tear-jerker called "Penny Serenade" with co-star Irene Dunne who often played opposite Grant and had very similar comedic skills. The Penny Serenade is entertaining, but would probably be seen as a bit on the corny side by today's audiences.

The second Oscar nomination was for a genuinely serious picture, the dark "None But the Lonely Heart" where Grant played a cockney loser without much in the way of a warm nature. This picture has all the qualities of a typical Film Noir

Early in the life of Mensa Classic Films we developed a concept of five films of a particular type or featuring a particular performer or director that we could take with us to an imagingary Desert Island. This provided a convenient way of listing our favorites. However when it came to doing Cary Grant a real problem developed in coming up with only five Grant films, so we compromised and named a top five followed by three more of almost the same prime classification.

Without further ado, here are the Big Five, and as usual, in alphabetical order:

o Gunga Din

o None But the Lonely Heart

o Only Angels Have Wings

o Philadelphia Story

o Topper

The near three, that we would probably be just as happy with in exchange for any of the above are:

o Arsenic and Old Lace

o Bringing Up Baby

o North by Northwest

Those eight films cover a span of 23 years and indicate Grant's enduring skill

Gunga Din - Adventure par excellence and surely one of the all-time favorite films in this genre. The north Indian frontier, the British Raj and that line of aristocratic officers, dedicated soldiers and native warriors opposing the hordes that come out of the mountains and through the passes in an attempt to overrun India. Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. are Grant's cohorts, and Sam Jaffe is memorable in the title role. (See Classic Films issue no. 40, June 1985 for the writer's critique).

None but the Lonely Heart - Grant in probably his most serious role received a nomination for best actor but was panned by some critics and but grudgingly liked by others. He plays a cockney son of Ethel Barrymore and is loved by two women, the sensitive Jane Wyatt and June Duprez of the sensual almond-shaped eyes. Grant is the neer-do-well Ernie Mott in a film set in a dark London area of crime and deprivation.

Only Angels Have Wings - One of our favorite films on the early days of aviation, with grant playing the charismatic leader of a floundering airline in equatorial south America with the amazed and anguished Jean Arthur, the cool and reserved Rita Hayworth, and a crew of enthusiastic pilots played by a number of Hollywood's finest supporting players. (see our issue No. 3, Jan. 1982 for a review of the film).

Philadelphia Story - Grant as the super-sophisticated C.K. Dexter Haven, unconquerable Katherine Hepburn as the soon-to-be conquered Tracy Lord, and a host of other outstanding character players in this period piece on Mainline Philadelphians in the years before World War II. (The writer reviewed this film in Classic Films issue Number 17, March 1983).

Topper - The earliest film in our list with Grant in another sophisticated role accompanied by excellent support from Constance Bennett, our favorite role for the latter. They're the madcap Kirbys of wealth and ectoplasm. Roland Young is the mousy banker they reeducate, and Billie Burke is the banker's stiff and bossy wife plagued with dyspepsia.

Of the films in this list, the movie fans via the L.A. Times survey of 1978 rated "Philadelphia Story" as the 48th best top film of all time. "Gunga Din" finished 95th. "Bringing Up Baby" and "Northwest by Northwest" were in the top 100. The most recent survey of the Internet Movie Data Base ratings listed North by Northwest as the most favored Grant film followed by Notorious. Both of these films used the spy environment as a basic setting.

In the five year period following my development of the Cary Grant list of favored film, I had the opportunity of seeing various Grant pictures a number of times. One film which I would include in my all time favorite list would be "Sylvia Scarlett" another Grant co-starrer with Katherine Hepburn. This film was made in 1935 and featured Grant in his only other performance playing with a cockney accent. Grant is a hustler in this film and has become acquainted with Edmund Gwenn and Katherine Hepburn in a cross channel journey from France to England. The latter pair have had to flee France because of the father's shenanigans. The three form a team and skuldugger as best they can with mixed success. Grant does not know that Hepburn is a girl since she is always dressed in boys clothing. In the attempt to escape France she has had her hair cut and is dressed in mens clothes posing as her father's son. It is a very different and off beat film for all three performers and one certainly worth watching. Grant performs an English music hall song or two in his cockney accent.

Grant has another vocal which he delivers in a nice baritone voice in the World War I aviation film called "Suzy," Grant plays a French flying office and co-stars with Franchot Tone. The female lead is Jean Harlow who Grant meets in a French cafe where Harlow is an entertainer. After she does her vocal piece, "Did I Remember," a really lovely and very plaintive song, he gets up and proves to her he can do it from memory. Much like Rex Harrison in "My Fair Lady" Grant does the song half singing and half reciting.

Both "Sylvia Scarlett" and "Suzy" rank pretty far down the list of favorite Grant films. Grant also sang a couple of numbers in the peculiar farce "Kiss and Makeup." Grant is a cosmetic beauty expert in France, which I find hard to believe. Perhaps the most interesting part of this film is Toby Wing who did the "Young and Healthy" number with Dick Powell in "42nd Street" without speaking a line, and who has a couple of lines in this film while disrobing down to her undergarments.

Another of Grant's really funny roles was that of newspaper editor Walter Burns in "His Girl Friday." Grant played opposite Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy and a slew of great supporting character actors in the remake of Hecht and MacArthur's "Front Page." This film is one of the principal "Fast Paced Films" that I reviewed in Classic Films issue number 28 in February of 1984.

Grant had two very successful comedies made in early in his career playing opposite co-star Irene Dunne. Irene Dunne's comedic talents are readily notable in the two films. In the first, "The Awful Truth" Grant and Dunne have grown tired of each other and gotten a divorce. The main problem with the divorce is who gets the dog, played by the venerable Asta of the Thin Man series of films made with William Powell and Myrna Loy. After the divorce Dunne has taken up with Ralph Bellamy, playing one of his dopey guys, this time a cowboy from Texas who lives with his mother.

In "My Favorite Wife" Grant remarries after his wife is declared legally dead. She had been on an archaeological expedition in the south Pacific and was presumed to have drowned. She arrives back when Grant gets married accompanied by her companion for seven years, Randolph Scott who had survived with her on a desert island, which of course causes Grant much internal. It's a delightfully silly film which ends with Grant dressed up in a Santa Claus outfit wishing Dunne a Merry Christmas in the attic of a mountain cabin. You will have to see the film to understand the whole significance of the scene.

When I wrote much of this in 1986 I noted that I had seen several of my favorite Grant films on the tube. In addition I have been exposed to a number of other Grant films that I was largely unaware of, including DVD's of some earlier and later films. I might note that one film I really enjoyed was "Thirty Day Princess" which starred Silvia Sydney in the key role of an out of work American actress being hired to portray a princess form a ruritarian like country from the Balkans. Her performance is terrific in both roles. Grant plays a newspaper publisher who is much against the Princess's visit, she's here to help float a loan for her impoverished country. After meeting her, played by the out of work actress, Grant falls in love. Edward Arnold plays the wealthy Bank President who is behind the loan.

Back in 1986 there was a lot of controversy over the process of colorizing films which was largely a brain child of Ted Turner of Turner Classic Movies. Fortunately the enthusiasm for this process has largely disappeared. I worried of their attempting to apply it in particular to a dark stark black and white film noir type picture like 'None But the Lonely Heart."

Grant remains a class by himself. Of modern day actors only George Clooney has some of the same charisma. Clooney has worked in a far greater range of productions. He has shown real comedic abilities including spoofing his persona. Cary Grant was once asked about the Cary Grant mystique and he commented, "Everybody wants to be Cary Grant, even I would like to be Cary Grant.